1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and an image forming method.
2. Description of the Related Art
At the present day, there is an image forming apparatus that includes an operation unit to which various applications can be added by installing an operating system (OS) on the operation unit. Hereinafter, an application is also referred to as an “app”.
Furthermore, there is an image forming apparatus that includes an operation unit through which an application can be activated by pressing of an icon of the application on its home screen that displays thereon icons to select any application.
On the other hand, there is a conventional image forming apparatus that includes an operation unit through which a different application from a currently-displayed application can be directly activated by pressing of a hardware key to select the application without going through a home screen. Then, the conventional image forming apparatus can stop processing a job of the currently-displayed application by pressing of a STOP key, which is one of hardware keys of the operation unit.
For example, in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2013-186748, there is disclosed a job processing system capable of registering a job accepted thereby having the processing of the job waiting until the preceding job has been processed. When a STOP key has been pressed, the job processing system disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2013-186748 suspends the registration of an unregistered job, which has not yet been registered in a job list, even if it is an accepted job; therefore, it is possible to reliably stop the processing of a job to be stopped.
It is troublesome to activate an application through a home screen of an operation unit, which is an initial screen to call an operation accepting screen (a UI screen) for using multiple functions. However, if hardware function keys are retained in the operation unit just like the conventional image forming apparatus, there is a problem that the screen area becomes smaller.
Accordingly, function keys (software keys) may as well be displayed in an always-displayed banner area of even an operation unit equipped with an OS, so a different application from a currently-displayed application can be directly activated by pressing of a corresponding function key without going through a home screen. The function keys here mean software keys always displayed in the banner area of the operation unit.
Furthermore, the operation unit is equipped with the OS; therefore, besides applications that use functions of a main body unit, an application that does not use a function of the main body unit can be added to the operation unit. Accordingly, when an application that uses a function of the main body unit and an application that does not use a function of the main body unit have been activated on the operation unit, there is a problem that even if a STOP key, which is one of the function keys in the banner area, is pressed to stop a currently-displayed application on the operation unit, a stop screen to stop the processing of a job of the currently-displayed application is not displayed properly. That is, although a user presses the STOP key with the intention of stopping the job of the currently-displayed application on the screen of the operation unit, the STOP key performs a process of stopping a job of a currently active application on the main body unit; therefore, it is necessary to synchronize the currently-displayed application on the operation unit and the currently active application on the main body unit.
Furthermore, when the STOP key has been pressed, the job processing system disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2013-186748 stops the processing of even a job that has been accepted but not yet been registered in the job list; however, the job processing system has not solved the problem that the stop screen to stop the processing of a job of a currently-displayed application is not displayed on the operation unit properly.
In view of the above, there is a need to provide an image forming apparatus and image forming method capable of synchronizing an application displayed on an operation unit and a currently active application on a main body unit.